Illinois Civil War Cruise 2011--Part 2: 176, 23, NIU and LH

April 29th: Left home at 9:30 and drove out to Woodstock, taking Il-47 south. Decided not to go through Huntley because of all the roadwork and took Il-176 to Marengo where we picked up Il-23 and took it all the way to its southern terminus in Pontiac, on Route 66. Next time, remind me to put up with the Huntley congestion as we ended up going about 40 miles farther, although it was a pretty drive and one we usually don't get to go.

Mileage on the car was 58 when we left and 305 when we got to Springfield. Saw a funny sign painted on a truck on Il-176, "Got Mulch?" Wonder what they were selling.

Gas in Woodstock, $4.20. From Marengo, the next big town is Sycamore with that really pretty downtown. I see they are doing work on the old court house.


OLD FRATERNITY HOUSES

We took a back way to Dekalb as 23 between Sycamore and that town is just one big commercial strip. This took us by the old Delta Sigma Phi house on Dresser Road, which must have just recently been torn down. Too bad. We called it the "Palace" because of how bad of a shape it was in.

We also went by the Delta Sig house I lived at sophomore year on Greenbrier. It stands and is now the AKL (Alpha Kappa Lambda) house. Looks to be in about as bad of a shape as it was when we were there 1970-1971.

We drove across Anne Glidden and saw the apartments where the NIU football player was shot a few weeks ago.


NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

Drove by Lincoln Hall, where I lived freshman year and went to Village Commons Bookstore where I bought some NIU stuff. Then drove through campus and out to the Lincoln Highway (Il-38) and to the Lagoon. We regard this as the prettiest part of the campus, topped off by NIU's first building, Altgeld Hall sitting up on the hill. We'll be back through Dekalb on our way back home so we can put down more money on our education scholarship.

Gas in Dekalb was anywhere from $4.06 (all prices up the 9/10 cent) and from $4.10 to $4.16 on Lincoln Highway.

Heading Southward. --RoadDog